Members of the Metro East Crash Assistance Team, including Alton police officer Daniel Ludwig, center, set up surveying equipment Tuesday on East Broadway at Brookside Avenue in Alton during accident reconstruction of a head-on crash there Saturday night. Adam D. King, 26, of Collinsville crossed over the center line, striking a woman driving a Nissan Altima. The driver of the Altima died in a St. Louis hospital from her injuries Tuesday. Police completely closed East Broadway for more than an hour while they plotted coordinates that were marked with spray paint on the roadway the night of the crash. less

Members of the Metro East Crash Assistance Team, including Alton police officer Daniel Ludwig, center, set up surveying equipment Tuesday on East Broadway at Brookside Avenue in Alton during accident ... more

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Members of the MECAT, including a Glen Carbon Police officer, left, hold equipment used for making precise measurements of distance as they reconstruct the now fatal crash.

Members of the MECAT, including a Glen Carbon Police officer, left, hold equipment used for making precise measurements of distance as they reconstruct the now fatal crash.

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Woman in head-on Broadway crash dies

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ALTON — A 33-year-old woman died Monday night in a St. Louis hospital’s intensive care unit of head injuries she suffered in a head-on crash last weekend on East Broadway in Alton.

Chief Jason “Jake” Simmons of the Alton Police Department confirmed Tuesday that the woman, Aleatha Wallace of St. Louis, had died at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Wallace was a passenger in the westbound Nissan Altima that crashed head-on with an eastbound Chevrolet pickup truck Saturday night.

Pfc. Daniel Ludwig, of the APD Traffic Division, said there were five people occupying the car when the truck crossed the center line in the 2800 block of East Broadway at 8 p.m. and crashed with the oncoming Altima.

Ludwig said besides Wallace, two other women and two children ages 7 and 5, were in the car. All of the occupants were taken to a hospital. He said the two other women, one of whom was the driver, suffered broken bones.

“The children had minor injuries,” he said.

Driver of the pickup truck, Adam D. King, 26, of Collinsville, was uninjured, he said.

Simmons said Monday that police cited King with improper lane usage and held him on a parole violation warrant from St. Louis County. Simmons said Tuesday that King may face further charges following Wallace’s death. He said authorities took blood and urine samples from King after the crash to determine if he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Those results were not available to police as of Tuesday afternoon, and the investigation continues into the crash.

Ludwig said police had conducted a preliminary investigation of the crash over the weekend. Then, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Tuesday, members of the multi-agency Metro East Crash Assistance Team (MECAT) blocked off that portion of East Broadway. The team surveyed, measured and took photos, among performing other more in-depth investigation components.

A Telegraph staff member saw representatives from the Madison County and St. Clair counties’ coroners’ offices, and officers from the Alton, Glen Carbon and Collinsville police departments at the site late Tuesday morning.

“The team is similar to the major case squad,” Simmons said of the collaborative effort to study serious vehicle crashes.

The chief said King told police he had dropped something on the floorboard of his truck as he was driving and bent down to pick it up. The truck traveled into the oncoming lane and collided with the Altima.

Simmons previously said a police officer was the first to get to the crash and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Wallace until paramedics from the Alton Fire Department and Alton Memorial Ambulance Service arrived.

The ambulance paramedics continued treatment as they drove the woman to Alton Memorial Hospital, from where an ARCH Air Medical Services helicopter flew her to Barnes-Jewish.